Best Local Campaign

Editors' Pick

Photo by Aimee Custis

County Councilmember Roger Berliner

County Councilmember Roger Berliner thought he had a free ride in his Bethesda/Potomac-based district: He reported raising just $200 during 2013. Then, hours before the 2014 deadline, former Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg filed for his District 1 seat. Sitting on more than twice as much money as Berliner in her campaign treasury, Trachtenberg looked to make it a competitive race. Berliner quickly shifted from idle to overdrive and in three months hauled in a hefty $176,000. It enabled him to conduct an extensive direct mail appeal to voters that received high marks in political circles and to air ads on local cable TV. In the end, a nasty Democratic primary race between two former allies was hardly competitive: Berliner came out on top in a nearly 4:1 blowout.